Money talks. Live with it!
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The Sky's the limit ...
Oh Bernie, when are you going to stop
looking through those EltonJohn style, rose
colored glasses.
Formula 1 is not that good that people
will be flocking to sign up to pay TV now
the BBC will only be able to show half of the
races live from 2012.
You poor, deluded, man.
Mitchell Dicksen
gordondicksen@gmail.com
What ever happened to "F1 MUST be on free-
to-air television"?
Oh yes, CVC partners need some
more cash, so principles will have to be
compromised.
What a shame the BBC has had to take its
pants off too in the interests of 'budget cuts'
I was just getting to like it all again.
No doubt the teams will tell themselves
there will be more viewers/more dosh,
but I have a sneaky feeling that F1 will
lose audience in the UK. – and that from
someone who already subscribes.
David Astbury
Rochester, UK
So let me see: Rupert (Murdoch) couldn't
buy the show, so he's going to take over the
broadcast rights ... and then get the owners
over a barrel?
I wonder if Bernie's phone or voicemail
has been bugged while all this was going
on. News Ltd? Bugging phones? Couldn't
happen!
Isn't there a 'fit and proper' clause
somewhere in all this mess?
F1, like Football, is selling its soul.
Matt Kingsbury
Walton-on-Thames, UK
Real Men's Stuff
Disaster averted. When it became clear that
Hungaroring was going to be wet (damp),
I waited anxiously for those fabled words:
Start behind Safety Car.
Has someone told them? The words never
came! The race actually started properly in
'sub-optimum grip conditions' as DC might
put it.
Great. If they'd done that (started behind
the SC) I would have missed a great race,
having thrown my shoe through the TV
screen ....
Let's hear it for Charlie.
Leigh Catchworth
Auckland, New Zealand
“ The views and needs of fans are of
prime importance to Formula One,” said
McLaren MD Jonathan Neale in Friday’s
FIA press conference.
I’m here to tell you that’s bollocks.
When it comes to TV there are two
things that matter to Bernie and the
teams. 1) What is the contract worth. 2)
How many people are watching.
The latter is important because it
influences the rates teams and FOM
can offer for sponsorship. The BBC/Sky
deal over F1’s UK coverage is good news
for the sport’s players because it will
bring in an estimated £15 million extra
per year for the rights and, ultimately,
more viewers because F1 will now be
on two UK channels and, crucially, race
highlights will be played on the BBC in a
prime time slot, which will pick up more
casual and accidental viewers.
So, although the Sky audience will be
lower than that which the BBC enjoys,
the overall figure should be higher.
It’s good news for the individual
broadcasters too. Sky has landed a big
fish at a time it is having other deals
scuppered. They hope to sell a load more
subscriptions as a result. Currently, 25
percent of homes subscribe to Sky. The
BBC has been instructed to axe £60
million from its sports programming,
and this move will take care of a large
part of that. They are thought to be
saving approximately £22 million on the
rights and there will be further savings
on production costs, as they will share
facilities, production personnel and
commentators with Sky.
It is clear that the BBC keeping sole
rights wasn’t an option. The math didn’t
work. The Corporation bit off more than
it could chew when it inked the F1 deal
in March 2008. This, of course, came six
months before the financial world fell to
its knees and begged. It paid too much
for it to start with, and then signed off
on an enormous production budget that
has proved unsustainable.
It makes for fantastic coverage but,
ultimately, it’s reckless. They bring at least
opinion
ADAM
HAY-
NICHOLLS
GPWeek Editor
Who owns grand prix racing? In the
end, it’s neither Dorna nor the FIM. It’s
who owns Dorna. And that is British
private equity company Bridgepoint
Capital.
Bridgepoint acquired the majority
Dorna shareholding mid-2006 from CVC
Capital Partners, when that company
was obliged by monopoly laws to divest
itself of MotoGP, having just bought F1.
In June this year came more news
from the shadowy world of private
equity groups. Bridgepoint was among
three companies in the market for a
controlling interest in InFront Sports
and Media. Who they? They are Dorna’s
equivalent in World Superbike; ultimate
commercial rights-holders to that other
motorbike World Championship.
For reasons beyond me, the same
monopoly restrictions do not seem
to apply here. If the bid succeeds,
then the same investment company
will own both rival motorbike World
Championship series. And should
this come about, the next question
is inevitable. Each series is facing its
MICHAEL
SCOtt
MotoGP Editor
opinion
Two for one – is there one too many world series?
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